As rain fell through the glowing luminescent rock cliffs of the Shadow Valley, a burst of shadows exploded and rose from within.
It was only natural after all. The more pressure you applied to hold something in place, the stronger the outburst would be when it is suddenly released.
And that’s what was currently happening to the boy named Lawkey.
For months now, he had to limit his power, not once using his Shadow Manipulation Sign. For a normal person, this wouldn’t be much of an issue, but for someone with Lawkey’s history, a childhood on the battlefield, this meant something completely different.
“It’s time to let a little loose! Bring it on!”
As he let his shadow power run rampant around him, he took an immediate stance with his sword held to his side.
Not waiting for him to prepare, the monsters began to rush forward, passing their Alpha who stood in place.
Lawkey tightened the grip on Eclipsed Dawn, slowly gathering more and more shadows around his blade.
He remembered the first three Principles of the School he was a part of, and all the practices that fell under them.
And then, it was finally time to reap the fruits of his training.
One Shadow Sword Style - Second Stance!
Evening Autumn Moonbow!
Having engulfed his blade in swirling tendrils of shadows, he swung it forward in front of him, tracing a horizontal arc that sent a sharp wave of purple-ish blackness at the horde of monsters.
“!?”
While some were smart enough to jump up or duck down, a good dozen of wolves were hit and taken down immediately.
The colony of Umbra Bats however, continued to fly toward their target at full speed.
But the boy wasn’t done yet.
He had jumped in the air to meet them, his hair already drenched from the rain. However, none of that affected the wide grin plastered on his face.
He wasted no time.
One Shadow Sword Style - Seventh Stance!
Ceaseless Crescent Moon Slash!
Having had a bit more time to charge it up, he swung his engulfed sword forward in a similar manner again, except this time, the resulting shadow wave was smaller, but denser in shadow output.
Seeing the slash coming, the colony of Umbra Bats tried to fly around it to avoid it, but suddenly, the shadow slash began to convulse and distort within itself.
“Keeek?!”
At a speed even their echolocation couldn’t keep up with, the original shadow slash suddenly sprouted and sent a violent burst of smaller slashes in all directions, forming chaotic and deadly clusters.
Lawkey saw at least a bunch of Umbra Bats get hit and fall after him as he made his way back to the ground with a chuckle.
“Heh! Take that, you overgrown bats!”
Just then…
“?!”
Nothing was ever that easy as another sudden cold chill ran down the boy’s body.
It could have only meant one thing.
“GRAAAAWWWWWRRR!”
“GRAAAAWWWWWRRR!”
The shockwaves from Orthrus’ latest double roar sent Lawkey crashing into the ground.
Having somehow held on after tumbling over a few times, he looked up to see all his shadows dispersing from the shockwaves too.
“Dammit! Stop it, you damn pup!”
As if on cue, Orhtrus suddenly stopped, allowing for the monsters around him to resume their charge.
“Shit!”
Lawkey quickly got up again, and planted his feet into the ground.
He saw the horde of monsters coming at him.
If it was {her}… or the old man… they could do this, so…
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He clenched his teeth as his eyes glowed emerald green once more.
“If I want to be on their level, I at least have to be able to do this much…”
He gathered all the shadows he could around him.
“It’s time to use that move already… Stupid old man should’ve been here to see it!”
One Shadow Sword Style - Selfmade Tenth Stance!
Wait… I don’t have a name for it yet!
It was a lovely day in the Kage Clan.
At least, that’s how it seemed to the two guards doing their usual duties patrolling the streets.
“You want to grab some Ramen after this?”
“Sure, I hear they are testing some new flavors they got from the recent trade, sounds exciting!”
“Right?! Hooray to the trade legislation if it gets us more flavors!”
Ichiro and Tsutomu went about their uneventful day, striking whatever conversations came to mind to pass the time.
They walked around the village until they found themselves in a narrow neighborhood that barely anyone lived in anymore. For someone else, this place might be boring to patrol, but for the two, it was a highlight for them to enjoy their peaceful day.
But that peace was about to be suddenly swept off their feet again, and by the same person as last time.
“Ahh!! I found you!!”
“?!”
They quickly turned around, not expecting anyone to be around this area. Especially not…
“Jun?!” They called out in unison.
“Quickly! You have to take me to the Royal Castle to meet Her Majesty, I can’t get there by myself!” Jun pleaded, her eyes shaking.
“Wow, wow, hold up, the Royal Castle?! How did you even find us again?!”
“That is certainly weird, but… Jun, has something happened?”
While Ichiro was too stunned to think straight, Tsutomu stepped up again to clear his suspicion after seeing Jun’s expression.
“It’s… It’s a long story.” She hesitated, “The important thing is that Law is in danger… Even the Kage Clan… Her Majesty… is in danger!”
“What?!”
“Then you can explain on the way, let’s go!”
And with that, without wasting any more time, all three of them took off in the direction of the Royal Kage Castle, not realizing what awaited them was a much bigger disruption of their peaceful day.
“Keeeek! Keeeeeeek!”
“Hngh!”
Slash! Slash!
One large wolf collapsed motionless to the ground on one side, and an oversized bat crashed down without its wings on another.
The boy rampaging through the horde of monsters surrounding him kept slashing left and right, his shadows bursting out of control all around him.
He had been bitten and clawed at multiple times already. He felt parts of his body grow colder with each second that passed.
Nevertheless, he had a wide grin plastered on his rain covered face. That, coupled with the aura and shadows constantly rising from his body, sent shivers down the monsters’ spines.
He had tried to use his self-made stance again, but he failed. The words of his teacher rang in his ears again as he realized it himself. It just wasn’t that easy to create a sword technique after all.
But that didn’t mean he gave up, he just didn’t get the chance to try again.
He kept cutting and slashing at his surroundings until he was suddenly interrupted by two loud roars again.
“GRAAWWWRRR!”
“GRAAWWWRRR!”
“Aghhh!! Shut up already!! You’re so annoying! Stop hiding in the back and come face me, you useless mutt!”
Again, as if on cue, Orthrus stopped roaring and charged forward, its two heads directly glaring at their prey with glowing yellow eyes. The black slits that shaped its pupils quickly contracted as it got closer to the boy.
“Seriously!?”
Lawkey quickly jumped back, but not before leaving a slash of shadows to prevent any monsters from following him directly.
Watching the giant two-headed wolf coming his way, he took an immediate fighting stance upon landing and charged up as many shadows as he could muster around him.
“...”
He tried to remember that feeling of being merged with the tri-colored butterfly.
{Her} shadow output during {her} last stand against Kerberos.
The old man’s fluid and sharp execution of the sword techniques.
The teachings and Principles he had learned for the last few months.
“GRRRRRRR!!!”
“GRRRRRRR!!!”
As Orthrus jumped to claw at him, Lawkey simply readjusted the grip on his beloved sword.
His throat was dry due to the humidity of the Shadow Valley.
The cold chilly air made what little hair he had on his body stand up.
The sounds around him seemed to have drowned by complete silence for some reason.
He felt his senses expand beyond their limits in an instant, his focus reaching a point it had never reached before.
I would like nothing more than to try my Stance here, but as the old man taught me, you need to use the most fitting technique for the situation…
And so…
Clenching the handle of his shadow-engulfed sword tightly, he swung it up in a straight and beautiful arc above him.
One Shadow Sword Style - Sixth Stance!
Early Spring Moonrise!
For a split second, the entire Shadow Valley stood motionless.
The rain had stopped.
Time seemed to slow down as his blade cut through the air, engulfed in a violent spiral of shadows.
The very thing to cut through the time lag was a giant wave of chaotic shadows reaching all the way up to the surface of the ravine.
And then, suddenly, rain resumed its fall.
“Hah… Hah…” Lawkey tried to catch his breath as he returned his blade to his side.
All the shadows around him dispersed as he exhausted his Sign again.
All the other monsters stood shivering at the sight.
On each side of the boy laid half of a giant wolf, a beast once known as the two-headed Orthrus.
Rest in Darkness…
He made sure to pay his respect inwardly before catching his breath.
“Take that… Hah… Now you can all scram out of here…”
He tried to stay standing using his sword as a crutch while addressing the shivering monsters around him.
“Go on now, don’t make me swing this blade again.”
He spoke in a calm voice, but the emerald glare forced the monsters to stand motionless at the sight, having the opposite reaction he wanted.
“Maybe I should tone it down for you lot… It’s not like you wanted to fight yourselves… It’s over now…”
“Over? Come on, we’re just getting started, aren’t we?”
“?!”
As a weird sense of familiarity overtook him, Lawkey quickly turned back with a swing of his sword, but he was quickly blocked by a weirdly long Katana in the process of being drawn out.
“Sorry, sorry. I see you managed to beat little Orthrus.” The voice said, “Well, he was a bit weak to begin with, but I’m here now. I had to pick some people up, you see.”
“!!!”
Lawkey looked around him as multiple figures started to appear from the shadows, as if being summoned from the depth of hell and clawing their way up.
But the figures did not look like any demons he had heard of in stories, no. Some had long pointy ears, some were as big and hairy as bears, and some were just simple humans.
However, they all had two things in common. Two symbols, one being different tattoos of Royal Clan Logos with a cross mark over them, as if denying them completely.
And the second, the one that was the same on all of them unlike the first one, a symbol depicting some kind of golden flower petals.
Lawkey recognized those kinds of symbols, not the specific designs, but…
“A guild?! What’s a guild doing here?!”
“They’re all here to kill you of course. They work for some people who used to know my dad, apparently, so it was easy to convince them.”
Lawkey quickly stepped back, but he immediately realized he was being surrounded from all sides.
“‘The Hyking lured the monsters to the clan, and tried to flee, but I managed to kill him and stop the monsters on my own.’ How about that? It should work, right?” The boy with the blood-red eyes snickered.
As the rain continued to hit them, the skin on his forehead began to distort and fall, or at least what seemed like skin.
“Agh, so annoying, this is why I don’t like to sweat or get myself wet.” Without hesitation, he reached out and ripped off the skin-like mask on his forehead.
He held up his light brown bangs, revealing the pair of blood-red eyes under them, along with a birthmark over his right eyebrow depicting a ‘CV’.
Lawkey recognized it immediately too.
“A birthmark… I knew it.” He said, narrowing his eyes.
“...”
“You were a Hyking from the start yourself, Kojiro!”
Kojiro simply wore a smug smile on his face.
“It’s about time for our duel, don’t you think?”
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image [https://i.imgur.com/KQmIY8F.png]